Sticking oil pressure gauge

Gargo

Gargo

Active Member
Having left the Rover V8 for a couple of months, on engine start the oil pressure warning light went out but the gauge was not budging. Later once hot and with higher revs the gauge flicked into life.
The engine rested over night and the gauge was stuck again at zero, then ping it flicked into life. The gauge is now working fine from first start as it should.

Has anyone suggestions on what is suspect; the sender or the gauge? Can the sender be tested on the car, what should I be able to measure?

Don't suggest a loose wire as once the gauge is working, it works fine.

Thanks,
Gavin.
 
Hi Gavin,

My gauge does the same on occasions. In all cases so far, it has been a result of the contact between the terminal on the sender and the corresponding terminal on the wire. Slip the wire off the sender, rub the spade with some emery paper and refit.
Problem solved (well certainly in my case).

Ron.
 
Before you work on it do a simple test. Have an assistant sit in the car, take the wire off the sender and ground it to the engine by hand, get the assistant to turn on the ign. If the gauge does not move it is the gauge at fault. You can move the wire on and off the block to make the needle rise and fall to check the gauge for smoothness of operation.
The needle should go full scale when the wire is grounded.
 
One other small thought. I had a situation once where the gauge needle kept sticking in the same place. I eventually realised that when I had had the dashboard Perspex off in order to remove a faulty time clock I must have caught the needle on the oil gauge and bent it out slightly. When I put the dash Perspex back on, the needle was rubbing and sticking on the Perspex cover! Simply removed the cover again, bent the needle back in a bit and solved it. Probably not your problem but thought I should mention it!
 
Thanks cobraboy a simple test, just what I wanted. Can't wait for it stick again! Hopefully that wish will fix it for good :D
I assume from this test the sender is a variable resistor, with no resistance at high pressure?

Ron, I've not tested the wire yet, but by grounding the wire I'll know if the wire's connectors are good or not.
 
Generally it is the sender that goes intermittent but replacing it with a new sender can be a bit of a crapshoot as the new crop have potential problems with leaking, I guess a new old stock one would be best if such a beast is still surviving in the wild.

Have exactly the same problem with mine but am not particularly concerned as 95% of the time it works
 
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